Just saw on the news where Montgomery county in Ohio is the overdose capital of the world.

From a piece in the Guardian earlier this week ... "Drug companies were pouring opioids into West Virginia, delivering 780m painkillers into a state of just 1.8m people over a five year period to 2012, according to an investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail."

Hard to even wrap my head around this. Not surprising - just the negligence.

@hlpflwthat: that's exactly what I'm referring to. However, I have to say that the drug companies could pour all of the opiods here, if the physicians weren't writing prescriptions for them, they wouldn't have found their way out of the pharmacy...hmm...it's getting better, I've seen a real reluctance for physicians in the hospital to give pain medication to patients with problems that Tylenol can handle. I'm glad to see that it no longer flows freely.

Yeah - it's a systemic thing, I think. In fairness, corporate docs don't get the time to study drugs. They listen to pharma reps(who work commission) and go by results from there. Oxy [b]does [/b]do a wonderful job of killing pain. But the addictive qualities were pretty much overlooked(hidden.)

@hlpflwthat: I agree with that. I do think however, that oxycodone should be reserved for someone that addiction is not going to be a factor. What I mean is someone who is elderly and experiencing pain..someone who is terminally ill, that type of thing. The prescriptions given, and amounts of these medications can be curbed no doubt, what can the controlled, is how an individual takes the medication. If an individual takes a medication more frequently or by a different route than is prescribed, they should be responsible for that action.

And clear labeling/straight talk wouldn't hurt. Oxy should be known as synthetic heroin in a pill, because that is exactly what it is.

@hlpflwthat: yes, I agree completely.